Edit: Yes, I picked up my phone when I shut off my laptop, and that looks to have swapped to a totally different account while I was responding. My bad. Guess there's no unringing that bell. My final thought here is that I wish all the parents and teachers reading this a lot of luck, I may see you in the picket lines at the schools, I'll bring my red shirt, and the kids will join, too. You're fighting the good fight and the Seattle community is with you. I'm sorry that Reddit is such a cesspool, I'm hoping we get through the current struggle in one piece with our kids back in school.

Edit: I thought the bargaining team for SEA was hired, but it's actually composed of many union members across a very wide range of roles within the district. The team and their current roles are listed out here: https://www.seattlewea.org/contracts-and-bargaining/2022-bargaining-updates/2022-bargaining-team/

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Last night I sent an email to my Seattle School Board Director (Chandra Hampson - SPS district 3) via her seattleschools.com email address, sharing my thoughts about the strike and union demands, and asking that the board won't file an injunction against the striking teachers. I was surprised this morning when Chandra called me directly and offered to discuss all my concerns. What an amazing opportunity! Luckily I was at my desk and ready to take notes. She has time for calling one constituent each day, and I was fortunate enough to be free at the time when she did call, and had already written out a lot of questions and thoughts because of the ongoing strike. We had an hour-long discussion and I asked about the strike, the teacher demands, the comprehensive school board plan details listed on the district website, etc. Hampson was super focused to get me answers and I'm thankful for her time. Below are my notes from the conversation, and I tried to leave out my own commentary or editorializing and focus on her responses (until my parting thoughts at the end).

Hampson has 3 kids in the Seattle public schools, 2 of them have 504s in place, and they went to Sandpoint Elementary. As a parent she is also dealing with her kids being out of school due to the negotiations and strike. She has been in the role of teacher, parent, and now elected to the Seattle School Board.

Hampson wanted to clarify a couple things about roles and responsibilities of the different groups involved. As a parent I was also quite confused about what the focus and role are of the School Board and the district, compared to the teacher's union, and how each side is involved in the ongoing contract negotiations.

Before diving in - Hampson shared the Lighthouse study on school boards, results of which are driving how school boards are being structured around the country. It's the largest study on school board performance and is guiding our current board's methods for their own structures and policies: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED453172

A school board director job is entirely about governance, not customer support, meaning: they are responsible with setting the direction of the schooling, curriculum decisions, guidance towards classroom and school best practices, and ensuring that schools have resources available to execute on planned changes. In the context of the inclusivity model (more on that later) Hampson clarified the School Board's job is to provide the direction and the goals for the inclusion, clarify what is required (at federal, state levels) and what is not permitted by law. The director position is not like other elected officials because the school board is elected to represent the students first and foremost, and the community in which they live. It is "the worst elected job" because of how thankless their efforts are but also how impactful the decisions become. Hampson was very clear that the board "doesn't represent teachers or parents, but instead represents the entire community when making decisions". They have to think of what's best for the entire community in Seattle, not one specific interest group or demographic.

Because the directors are so focused on governance they do not have time for "customer support". They do often help connect parents with resources, or help solve problems at specific schools in their coverage. Their full-time focus, however, is governance and decision making. Some tactical changes are being made to address the problems around customer service. Right now the board has hired a consultancy to perform a full communications audit of the district to try and figure out where and how they can improve communications internal and external, and it's up to the superintendent to get the district staff to provide all the data and information. Additionally, the board is aware that they need to create a high-value customer service department to handle the myriad problems parents face when trying to navigate district policies and processes.

The community needs to understand that the only non-district entity involved is the SEA teachers union - by definition the union is created to advocate for teachers and teacher negotiation, but the district and board are created to support the students and drive student success. This may seem like semantics, but it's a very clear distinction that the SEA union is an external entity that is hired to do a job, much like an attorney is when representing clients. The union will use every tactic to get what they need for their members because that is their primary purpose for which they are hired, even if it isn't best for the students. They will use spin and stalling tactics, and others to get the agreed-upon list of demands. The union is looking at teacher advocacy, not student success. The difference can seem subtle at first glance.

Now to a primary sticking point of the ongoing strike and negotiations: data and real-world experiences in other districts and states show that an inclusion model will get us out of being stuck with the problems the schools face when dumping money and resources into SEL/multilingual and special ed, but not getting results or pushing the needle. Last year, the existing model used in Seattle schools poured $120M in addition to all the state funding, but the results were abysmal. Everyone, across the board, including teachers, staff, admins all believe that the goals and results of a properly-executed inclusivity program at the district level is not only achievable, but is the right path to follow. It's clear that the 1:1 model of assignment for SEL does not produce the desired (or federally mandated) results, and it just segregates students, often along demographic lines that are historically underperforming. The board believes that if we don't start with the inclusion mechanisms this year we may never catch up to the goals set by law.

In response to the need for the inclusivity model the SEA teachers union created a task force to come up with a plan on how to rollout and execute in the schools, and to determine which resource would be needed. The board is 100% behind the task force's plan toward inclusion, and also getting the staff the resources they need to implement it. To support the plan the School Board determined that no changes to staffing ratios will happen in the 2022/23 school year, and instead the year should be used for onboarding teachers and admins, support training, and build out curricular resources for inclusion. For this first year the School Board is asking for a 1-year contract. The plan will take 5-10 years to unwind and rebuild for full implementation, and it's clear that things will be more expensive at first before efficiencies materialize to decrease cost over a few years, and to achieve all the expected student results. The board is trying to update and modernize the practices of the district because it's clear that many students are not getting the experience and opportunities they need.

I asked Hampson what the role of a director is in the current strike. She believes that the board and district didn't do enough to inform teachers and parents during the pandemic that this large uplift is coming. For that reason, and others, there is a real trust gap, and also a belief gap - people don't believe that the school board is reformed in their direction and their commitment to the schools and teachers. The school board is primarily responsible for the belief gap. The last superintendent put out communications that weren't true, but the new board and district staff are committed to be ing extremely fact-based. The superintendent has been directed to focus solely on student issues.

As a director, Hampson is staying focused on the specific goals set for the district - things that must be done or are not allowed. The board is keeping students at the center of their focus. Sometimes that means asking tough questions like "can we afford this?" Right now the SEA union is asking for $500M, but the planned investment in school resources is already greater than what we currently spend. No one is saying "screw the inclusion thing" and everyone agrees with the goals, however there is disagreement on how to get there. The current board cannot agree to things that will result in a deficit for the next board.

Okay, so what's the plan to get teachers and parents onboarded? Hampson has many points on what the board is doing to get us from here to there. First is addressing the big trust gap with the community. The first year of implementation is meant to be an onboarding time to work on aligning everyone on the process and goals, hence the board asking for a 1-year contract. The district will add additional staff, and provide training opportunities for teachers, admins, and staff, on how to handle the transition to the inclusivity model. Not every classroom will become an inclusion classroom. The board is also reminding everyone that change is hard, especially transitioning from Seattle "talking progressively" about education and inclusivity to switching into execution mode and making actual changes that implement the goals.

Many other tactical changes are happening. We have a brand new superintendent that is an expert in governance. The superintendent job is not like school-administration, but rather has to be someone who is an expert in governance; this encompasses an entirely different skill set than a former principle or school administrator. This is the first time that a superintendent is hired for that particular skill set, and we haven't yet had the time to see what exactly that means at the scale of SPS because of his short tenure thus far. The board is also asking the state and colleges to mandate teacher and administrator inclusivity and special ed training for all teachers graduating to work in our districts. It's not currently required and has created a huge deficit in teacher abilities in working with inclusion classrooms. The district is also buying curriculum for the first time. What that means is teachers will have curriculum that is uniform across the district, pre-made for them to use, and they will be able to train on the curriculum to avoid surprises or having to fall back to previous year's plans. The curricular support is aimed to reduce teacher burden so they can focus on classroom time more, and student interaction and not the overhead of building out curriculum. Individual plans do not scale to a system as large as SPS, and having uniformity makes for easier teacher onboarding and long-term success.

My parting thoughts: I'm really thankful that I had the chance for a real discussion with a board member. It's not often that we can hear directly from decision makers and get responses to our questions without a news source or press release as an intermediary. It gives me validation that there are real people doing the hard work in those jobs. As a parent, Hampson knows what it's like working with the district, and going through the 504 and IEP process with her own children, and she knows the pains we feel watching these bureaucratic processes take place. Our feelings as parents and community members right now are very real, and the frustration is felt from all sides. I got the impression that Hampson and the school board are genuinely invested in the success and future of Seattle schools, students, and the community. I hope that we can all come together and collaborate for the sake of our students and for Seattle.

The board's comprehensive plan is available on the schools website along with the current negotiation details. Here are some other resources that Hampson shared for reading on inclusion and school board data:

• http://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-story-of-one-unions-journey-toward-disability-justice/
• The Lighthouse study article: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED453172
• Summary blog post of what is at stake in the current negotiation: https://arcofkingcountyvoice.blogspot.com/2022/09/back-to-school-inclusion-at-center-of.html

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EDIT: Here's the text of my original email to Hampson --

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Dear Director Hampson,

I am a parent of 2 elementary school children in your school board district 3 that were meant to start at {their school name} school this week. We had our first meetings with the teachers and were lucky enough to tour the school before the scheduled first day. Unfortunately SPS is not providing the support the teachers need and they have decided to strike instead of starting a year with flawed policy and under-resourced facilities and staff.

I am urging you as my board representative to not file an injunction against the teachers or to fine them for their time in the picket lines. This would be a devastating blow to our beloved schools, and we would be failing the educators we so desperately need.

I stand with the teachers in their picket lines and expect that the district will do everything in its power to meet the needs of the teachers and give them the special ed support they deserve. Our teachers have been blindsided with the past two years and need our support more than ever. With many of the staff and teachers having left the district we should be praising and rewarding the remaining teachers, and hiring more educators and staff to join them. Instead, it seems that the district is keeping negotiations at an impasse, and failing our children.

Thank you for your help,{my contact info}